The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) based location determinations in cellular telephone handsets to satisfy the E-911 location requirement mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and to support value-added commercial applications requires that the GPS receiver embedded in the cellular handset acquire a minimum of numbers GPS satellites having an acceptable geometrical configuration. If altitude is known reasonably accurately, the GPS receiver may compute its location upon acquiring at least threes satellites, otherwise at least four satellites must be acquired. Acquisition of three or four satellites however may not always be possible, for example, when attempting to determine location from inside buildings and in other areas where satellite signal strength is attenuated. Even where satellite signal strength is not an issue, poor satellite geometry may produce excessive position error.
Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD) is an alternate means of determining the location of a wireless handset based upon Time-Of-Arrival (TOA) information obtained by the wireless handset and communicated to cellular network infrastructure where the handset location is computed with the benefit of Location Measurement Unit (LMU) determined correction information. The position computation accuracy of E-OTD location technology however is often less than the accuracy requirements imposed by the FCC for E-911 compliance. The inaccuracies of E-OTD location computations are attributed largely to its relatively poor measurement quality and to its susceptibility to signal multi-path interference.
It is known to aid GPS based positioning determinations with Time of Arrival (TOA) measurements in cellular communications networks. U.S. Pat. No. 5,999,124 entitled “Satellite Position System Augmentation With Wireless Communication Signals”, for example, teaches the fusion of Time of Arrival measurements with GPS pseudo range information in the measurement domain.
It is also known generally to provide coarse location and corresponding coarse location uncertainty information to a GPS receiver for reducing the code phase search space and for determining whether the coarse location is suitable for linearizing GPS pseudo range measurements.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Detailed Description thereof with the accompanying drawings described below.